Meaning System

A system in which interpretation governs coordinated action

1. Canonical Definition

A meaning system is a system in which interpretation assigns action relevance to signals such that coordinated action is governed across agents and time. Meaning systems instantiate constraint-governed state resolution (CGSR) under interpretive jurisdiction and declared reference conditions, such that resolved states acquire action relevance and can bind. A meaning system is defined by its reference conditions, interpretive capacity, binding mechanisms, response pathways, and correction ability, rather than by its content, values, or substrate.

2. Phase and Preconditions

• Operates: across interpretive events and over time

• Requires: admissible systemhood, interpretation, and action relevance assignment

• Does not require: legitimacy, shared agreement, moral alignment, or persistence without correction

3. Scope and Exclusions

A meaning system is not:

• identical to any system that resolves states or processes signals (including systems that perform CGSR without interpretation)

• reducible to language, symbols, or communication channels

• defined by beliefs, norms, or cultural content

• guaranteed to be legitimate or stable

• equivalent to a post-closure meaning regime

4. Structural Role

Meaning systems provide the environment in which interpretive events occur, meanings bind, responses are routed, and outcomes may persist or reopen. They supply the structural continuity that allows meaning to be reused, contested, corrected, or drift over time. All governance, regime classification, and temporal behavior presuppose an underlying meaning system.

5. Authority and Legitimacy Status

• Authority relation: presupposes

• Legitimacy relation: relevant

A meaning system can host both legitimate and illegitimate governance. Authority and legitimacy are not properties of the system itself but of the regimes operative within it.

6. Temporal Status

Meaning systems persist across time insofar as their boundaries, interpretive capacity, and correction pathways remain intact. Temporal degradation of meaning systems occurs through drift in crystallized baselines and through failures of correction capacity.

7. Common Category Errors

• Treating any communicative environment as a meaning system

• Confusing meaning systems with individual interpreters or agents

• Assuming meaning systems are inherently legitimate or stable

• Equating meaning systems with cultures, languages, or value systems

8. Canonical Cross-References

System • Meaning • Interpretation • Interpretive Jurisdiction • Binding • Meaning Regimes (PCMR / DMR) • Drift • Action Determinacy Loss (ADL) • Constraint-Governed State Resolution (CGSR).

9. Plain Statement

A meaning system is a system where interpretations determine what actions count as possible, required, or forbidden over time.